Wildcat
Kingdom
Phylum
Subphylum
Class
Order
Suborder
Family
Subfamily
Genus
SPECIES
Felis silvestris
Life Span
15 years
Top speed
48
30
km/hmph
km/h mph 
Weight
5
11
kglbs
kg lbs 
Height
20
8
cminch
cm inch 
Length
43
17
cminch
cm inch 

The wildcat is a species complex comprising two small wild cat species: the European wildcat (Felis silvestris) and the African wildcat (F. lybica). The association of African wildcats and humans appears to have developed along with the establishment of settlements during the Neolithic Revolution, when rodents in grain stores of early farmers attracted wildcats. This association ultimately led to it being tamed and domesticated: the domestic cat is the direct descendant of the African wildcat. It was one of the most revered cats in ancient Egypt. The European wildcat has been the subject of mythology and literature.

Appearance

Wildcats are usually gray-brown and have bushy tails and a clearly-defined pattern of black stripes that cover their entire body. They have short soft fur. Their color is like that of a domestic tabby cat, which makes them hard to see within their forest homes. European wildcats have winter fur which is thick and sometimes makes them look bigger than other wildcats. Wildcats in Asia have a background color in their fur that is more yellow or reddish, with a pattern overlaying the color of dark spots that sometimes tend to converge into stripes. Wildcats in Africa have lighter-colored fur, ranging from sandy yellow to brown and gray, with darker spots and stripes. On the backs of their ears, the fur has a typical reddish tint.

Video

Distribution

Geography

Wildcats live throughout southwestern Asia, continental Europe, and in Africa in the savannah regions. They inhabit desert regions and are restricted to waterways and mountainous areas. European wildcats live primarily in broad-leaved and mixed forests. They avoid intensively cultivated areas and settlements. Wildcats are also found in Mediterranean scrubland, riparian forest, and along sea coasts.

Wildcat habitat map
Wildcat habitat map
Wildcat
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Habits and Lifestyle

Wildcats are normally active at night, dusk, or dawn, but can also be active during the day, especially in areas where there are not many humans. Asiatic wildcats especially will often be active during the day. They often travel far at night seeking prey. Sight and hearing are the wildcat's primary senses when hunting. It lies in wait for prey, then catches it by executing a few leaps, which can span three meters. When hunting near water courses, it waits on trees overhanging the water. It kills small prey by grabbing it in its claws and piercing the neck or occiput with its fangs. When attacking large prey, it leaps upon the animal's back and attempts to bite the neck or carotid. It does not persist in attacking if prey manages to escape. Wildcats are mainly solitary, except during the mating period. Within its own territory, the wildcat deposits scent marks at different sites, and it may also leave visual markers on trees by scratching them as well as leaving scent through glands on its paws. They shelter in the hollows of fallen or old trees, rock fissures, and nests or earth that have been abandoned by other animals, never digging their own burrow. When threatened, they retreat into a burrow, rather than climb trees.

Diet and Nutrition

Wildcats are carnivores. Small rodents (mice, rats, and voles) are their primary prey, followed by birds (especially waterfowl such as ducks, galliformes, passerines, and pigeons), dormice, hares, insectivores, and nutria.

Mating Habits

REPRODUCTION SEASON
December-February, May-July
PREGNANCY DURATION
60-68 days
BABY CARRYING
1-7 kittens
INDEPENDENT AGE
140-150 days
FEMALE NAME
queen
MALE NAME
tomcat
BABY NAME
kitten

Wildcats are polygynous. When a female is ready to mate, males in the area gather near her and compete for access. The wildcat has an estrus period from December to February and another from May to July. The gestation period lasts for 60 to 68 days. Litters range in size from 1 to 7 kittens. The young start hunting alongside their mothers when they are 60 days old, and after 140 to 150 days will begin to move independently. Kittens are more or less fully grown at 10 months, though the growth of the skeleton continues past 18 to 19 months. The family disbands after about 5 months, the kittens going off to establish territories for themselves. Females become reproductively mature from about 6 months.

Population

Population threats

Wildcats are under threat from habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation. Further threats to European wildcats are population isolation, collisions with automobiles, and diseases transmitted via domestic cats.

Population number

Interbreeding with domestic cats makes it very difficult to estimate the wildcat population size. In some areas, estimations have been made for specific populations: Scotland: 1,000 to 4,000 individuals, Germany: 1,700 to 5,000, Slovenia: 2,000 or less; Poland: 100 to 150, Slovakia: about 1,500, and Romania: 10,000.

Ecological niche

Wildcats have an important role controlling populations of rodents as well as other small mammals. It is this activity that likely led them to domestication.

Domestication

The ancient Egyptians were thought to have been the first people to domesticate a cat, just four thousand years ago. However, in 2004 French researchers in Cyprus discovered the ninety-five-hundred-year-old remains of a cat and a human buried together. More recently, an analysis of cat teeth and bones from a fifty-three-hundred-year-old Chinese settlement indicated that cats were eating grains, rodents, and leftovers from human meals. It would seem that after the advent of agriculture, cats in Asia and the Near East began to gather near grain stores and farms, where there were many mice and rats. Humans tolerated the exterminators of these pests, and the cats became more and more comfortable around people. Whether this association came about five or ten millennia in the past, evidence suggests cats were not in the domestic human domain for as long a period as dogs, these animals have been human companions for maybe forty thousand years.

Coloring Pages

References

1. Wildcat Wikipedia article - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildcat
2. Wildcat on The IUCN Red List site - http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/60354712/0

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